


Good Deeds

by Jinmukang



Series: Batfam Week 2020 [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Identity Reveal, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin (DCU)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:41:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23131867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinmukang/pseuds/Jinmukang
Summary: Scarecrow breaks out of Arkham again, but this time he’s not messing around.-o-o-o-o-Day 5 of Batfam Week / Identity Reveal
Series: Batfam Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1658566
Comments: 11
Kudos: 155
Collections: Tales from the Cave





	Good Deeds

**Author's Note:**

> A day late. I know >.<

Dick’s pacing. It’s driving Tim insane, especially since he was literally shot less than a day before and shouldn’t be standing let alone _pacing_. But there’s nothing he can do about it. No one besides Alfred or Bruce can get Dick to sit still, and one is in England visiting his grandchildren and the other is the cause of the pacing.

It’s a Scarecrow attack. A massive one. One that has caused an all-hands-on-deck protocol. It’s almost like all the other break-outs, all the other new toxins and new tactics, was all for practice. For the first time in a long time, Scarecrow is a genuine threat and not a normal occurrence, no more unpredictable than a five day forecast. This week he’s been an unseen storm, spreading a toxin so potent and persistent that it’s victims are rendered screaming and clawing at their eyes on the floor for hours on end until their hearts stop.

Tim hasn’t found a vaccine yet, and the catch-all vaccine every hospital, bat, and first-aid kit carries is only slowing the mortality rate, placing patients in coma-like states to await the promise of an _actual_ vaccine that _actually_ works. Hospitals are scrambling and Tim has been doing nothing but test after test while the others all went out to find Scarecrow and his army of thugs he has somehow accumulated.

Tim snarls when once again his current attempt at a vaccine fails against the samples they have gathered and slams the beaker onto the table hard enough to wobble the other vials and glasses resting on the same surface. It feels like Scarecrow has finally perfected his formula and it’s setting every single one of Tim’s nerves on fire. 

Dick stops his pacing and then hobbles over towards Tim with a worried expression. Tim almost wants to shove him back onto the medical bed and strap him down to keep him from agitating the hole in his side even more, but his body betrays him as he leans into Dick’s sudden embrace.

“It will be fine,” Dick says, “you got this, little bird.”

Tim shakes his head and forces himself to break the embrace and return to his work. “Has B responded yet?”

Dick doesn’t reply and Tim bites his lip.

Batman went off grid hours ago. No response on the comms, no emergency signal, no signal _at_ _all_. Last any of them knew, Bruce was checking out a suspected haunt for Scarecrow, but when he stopped responding and Orphan and Spoiler went to check the haunt out, they came back empty handed.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Dick says, more to himself than Tim.

And then the routine continues, Dick pacing and hovering his hand over the comms, listening to every single thing that’s said, hoping for word on Bruce, while Tim changes his formula and compares it to past formulas and tries again.

A couple hours pass, and Tim’s just finishing up his next attempt as Dick’s finally collapsed onto the chair in front of the bat-computer, simply listening to the limited amount of chatter going on from Damian, Cass, Steph, Duke, and Jason over the comms as they check possible haunts one by one and Oracle works to sift through every kind of signal going off in Gotham that’s not civilian cellular or police/bat frequencies. Most of the haunts are just traps, similar to what Dick fell into the day before, nothing there but a bunch of grunts with guns. No one has gotten hurt yet, but there’s been multiple times one of the members have had to cut off to fight a battle with a dozen or so gunmen, leaving the others in a tense silence that has Tim cutting off his comm completely, relying on Dick to update him every so often.

At least it makes the injured man feel a little helpful. Dick’s smart, but not the best choice to help Tim out with complicated science. He’s injured, so no use out on the battlefield. The most Tim can do is let Dick man the comms and update sometimes. Plus, Tim’s sure it’s relieving some of Dick’s stress as well, he hasn’t verbalized it yet but Tim’s sure he feels horrible not being out there with the others right now.

Then, suddenly, Dick jumps up from the chair and whips his hands across the keyboard of the computer, a concerned crease to his eyebrows that has Tim placing his formula down and walking near the shoulder of the first Robin.

“Jason says to check the cable,” Dick explains in a rush.

Tim’s just about ask why but Dick finally connects the computer to the satellite and Tim feels his stomach drop.

Broadcasting on live TV on every channel in Gotham is an image of a man tied to a chair, leaning forward and panting slightly. The ropes of the chair are close to the only thing holding the man up. There’s nothing else to see in the feed, the area around the man is black, and there’s no noise besides the heavy, labored breathing.

The man is Batman.

Tim quickly turns his comms back on to be met with the chaos of multiple family members all trying to talk over each other.

Jason is arguing towards a frantic Damian that he saw the feed walking past a television shop and Steph is rambling about other places they could check to find Bruce while Duke argues that they’ve already checked _everywhere_. Cass is silent, but Tim’s phone vibrates with the notification of a text with the simple words of _he’s very hurt_.

Tim ignores the arguing to look back at the feed. Cass can notice details that no one else can, and the suit and armor makes it hard to see any kind of injuries besides the sight of a purpling bruise on Bruce’s jaw. He gives off the vibe of being more hurt than that though, so he’ll take Cass’s word for it.

Suddenly, Barbara’s voice snaps for everyone to shut up. Never one to anger Barbara Gordon, the entire line goes silent.

“ _I’m tracking the signal as we speak_ ,” Oracle hisses over the line, “ _so all of you shut up and keep looking. We’re wasting time arguing_ -“

Suddenly, there’s a change on the feed that has everyone silencing for a whole new reason. Batman looks up, past the camera, towards something behind it and narrows his eyes. There’s someone else there, and something is about to happen.

Tim swallows his growing fear as Scarecrow himself enters the screen, costume as freaky as ever with the noose tie and potato sack head, with a wide gaping smile cut jaggedly and held together with twine.

“ _Fear is often brought with the unknown_ ,” Scarecrow says, his voice sounding raspy and light. He stops and stands behind Batman, spindly fingers laying down on the hero’s shoulders. “ _So I won’t spoil you all with a monologue_.”

Tim and Dick share a glance.

“Babs, please tell me you can cut the feed,” Dick says into the comm piece in his ear. Barbara begins to snap that she’s working on it and Tim can only watch helplessly as Scarecrow continues.

“ _So I have one thing to say_ ,” the villain brings a hand up to the top of Batman’s cowl and bunches up the fabric ever so slowly, leaving Tim to wonder how he managed to bypass the security measures that would stop any common crook from touching the mask. The grin on Scarecrow’s face seems to widen as he leans forward and Batman’s jaw pops with the man stubbornly grinding his teeth.

“ _Who’s afraid of the Big. Bad. **Bat**_.”

The cowl is ripped off so quickly afterwards that it almost leaves Tim gasping. Bruce Wayne’s blue eyes glare at the camera for a moment before he growls at the wheezing-with-laughter Scarecrow as the villain begins to walk off the screen. The image of Bruce glaring off screen, refusing to say a thing, plays for a minute longer before the feed finally cuts off. Barbara gives a frustrated yell saying she’s lost the signal completely. Damian begins to practically screech for her to do better while Jason helpfully puts in that _ooh Joker is not going to like this_ and Tim can only look at Dick as the man continues to watch the blank screen with wide eyes and a fist pressed against his mouth.

It’s not the first time one of their own has been revealed on live television. Dick’s had it happen to himself when the Crime Syndicate captured him. Tim can only imagine what’s going on inside his head.

Tim quickly backs up from the screen and turns his comms back off, doing the only thing he can do right now, and that’s figure out the anti-toxin so no more people have to be literally _scared to death_.

As the next fails too, he places both his hands flat against the table and sucks in a shaking breath.

Batman’s identity is revealed, which means it’s only a matter of time before each and every other bat is soon figured out. None of his vaccines are showing any kind of progress, and he’s running out of samples to test his failures on. Nightwing is injured and the other’s are all at risk of joining him the more villains and traps they run head first into.

How are they going to get out of this one?

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think?


End file.
